OBIT: Jack Foley, Chairman of MWD

Originally posted at 1:43 p.m. March 24, 2014. Edited to correct spelling of family member's name.

Funeral services were pending today for John V. "Jack" Foley, the chairman of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Foley, 83, died Friday at his home in Laguna Niguel following a battle with cancer, according to the MWD. He was in the midst of his second two-year term as MWD chairman.

He also served as chairman from December 1993 through 1998, and was one of the longest-serving MWD directors, representing the Municipal Water District of Orange County since 1989.

"The water community has lost a wise and thoughtful voice of reason that will be sorely missed in the coming years as we make decisions that will shape water policy for future generations," MWD General Manager Jeffrey Kightlinger said. "Jack was a consummate gentleman who knew how to bring people together to solve big problems and advance real solutions."

Foley previously served as general manager of the Moulton Niguel Water District in southern Orange County and the Aliso Water Management Agency. He served on the San Diego Regional Water Quality Board in the late 1980s and on the Bay/Delta Oversight Council and the Bay Delta Advisory Council.

He served with the U.S. Army in Korea and Vietnam and was a district manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers until 1976.

He will be interred at West Point, in acknowledgement of his military service, according to MWD. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the West Point Association of Graduates, 698 Mills Road, West Point, NY, 10996.

Foley is survived by his wife, Mary Jane Forster-Foley; son John V. Foley III of Sun Valley, Idaho; daughter Ann Ziegler of Laguna Niguel; stepdaughters Christa Brown of Houston, Texas, and Alicia Eddy of Torrance; stepson Carlos Forster of San Francisco; and five step-grandchildren.

--City News Service